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Independent flight


There’s no real shortage of left wing ideas, or socialist proposals for the future within Independence, however I want to explore today one of the more centre and growth driven proposals we could realistically implement following a Yes victory. 

Two small nations have made an incredible success of their aviation industries based on their geographical locations in the world. We can look to Ireland and Iceland for inspiration. Ireland has the largest and most successful low cost airline in Europe, punching well above its population weight. 

Iceland has one of the widest connected networks for a small nation, perhaps the widest in relation to its size. Iceland even capitalises on its connectivity by offering 1/2/3 day stop-overs to every customer who books through the Icelandair main website. 

This is a big deal for the Icelandic nation, as it grabs tourists with money to spend, and brings them into the idea of a visit to a country they may otherwise not have thought about trying. Likewise for many business travellers the layover is basically included as the direct flight would otherwise be more expensive by another airline. 

Scotland has fantastic airport capacity, with three international flight capable airports in the central belt, it has the ability to link all three by rail. Prestwick has a train station, Edinburgh has one a moment away and Glasgow could be linked without much trouble in the future.

Further afield theres plenty capacity in Aberdeen and potentially Dundee. The whole country has an excellent base not just for strong aviation connections, but for great hospitality within the city areas surrounding those airports. 

The position of Scotland, as an English speaking country, working as a connection hub at the eastern edge of the Atlantic cannot be underestimated as an asset. While the air departure tax would need to be more competitive than the UK and its London connectivity stranglehold to attract the market – this would be more than made up for by volume of flights. London is already the largest connectivity hub of the world – and decades of poor leadership in aviation have made it a prime target to steal market share from.

Environmental concerns would obviously arise from this aviation bonanza, but again Scotland, as a world leader in renewables already would be able to double dip and use its engineering prowess and new found aviation market to lead the world in a transition to greener travel. 

Lastly there comes a great worldwide soft power influence when positive impressions of your country can be gained by business and tourist passengers, harassed by the ever diminishing quality of airlines, and looking for suitable calming respite surrounded by immense natural beauty.

To the skies!

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GenZ join the game

In an unexpected twist in US politics, the much vaunted red wave was stopped by aspiring democrats, much to the credit of the so called “Generation Z”.

GenZ also known as the ‘zoomers’ were born late 90’s into the 2010’s. This grouping have recently ascended into voting age in countries worldwide and have caused a bit of a stooshie.

This group have largely escaped the media and editorial control of their predecessors by the worldwide media organisations. As a grouping they don’t read newspapers, they don’t watch prime time news, and they don’t expose themselves to traditional media.

Instead the media that spreads among GenZ is much more organic, similar to communication within a beehive – messages that resonate are quickly spread among themselves. This may be a short TikTok, or a twitter post, it may be natural over Snapchat but it’s very rarely a long form entry on a news site.

It’s not something that can be easily manipulated as it either harmonises with the collective spirit that is within GenZ, or it fails and is dropped. No hashtags or promotions will solve that.

Traditionally they stay away from politics in their online communities – however when they join the political debate – they are dauntless in delivering a swift kick. Worldwide they’ve screwed up well founded plans for massive speeches by a certain former president against some of the highest paid campaign managers in the world.

But now they’ve started to vote.

It turns out, the electric and sudden outbursts, are able to be focussed. While the Republicans served up some rather extreme ideas – the GenZ voters responded in a sudden arrival at the voting booth.

It’s no secret within the Independence movement that the youth broke heavily for the Yes campaign. However since the vote – the youth disappeared but according to polling are entrenched in their views.

There is always an aspiring strategist asking the question – how do we motivate the youth to join our campaign, how do we involve them and get them re-energised. However this will never work. They are guided only by their collective sense of right.

The challenge should be instead for us to look to them, study the communication strategy and method. They’re already immune to national conventional media which is heavily biased against independence. They are motivated by values and an underlying sense of humanity and doing things ‘right’. They are not scared to return with trolling thunder if their opponents get bigger than their boots.

The voice in which they’ve spoken in America, is in the belief of the people that have appeared to represent them, almost every one a new face, usually from an unusual and unlikely political background.

Are our leaders still our best ticket? When someone says it has been a political generation already (including us) – did we forget to check that the faces presenting the case had changed? Because there are a lot of the same old voices, making the same old points.

It’s time to learn. Welcome Zoomers.

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Be annoyed, but don’t miss.

I’ve lived in my home for seven years now, when I purchased the property I had to sign two major long term deals with it. 

The first was the mortgage, I got quite a good rate, submit all my papers online and 10 days later, it was approved. I managed this without a mortgage broker and a little searching. It wasn’t hard but it was made to be complex. 

The second deal I had to secure was my energy contract. Lots of companies, tariffs, plans and payment schedules. It made very little sense but I went with the cheapest. 

I’ve renewed both of these deals over the seven years. However I’ve never had to think much about it or plan to do anything else. 

I’m going to focus on my energy contract – because of a war, a pandemic and some market disfunction – little old me is responsible for bailing out states, utility companies, energy producers and providers. It’s incredible to imagine with that much corporate juggernauting they’d all end up so reliant on my budgeting ability. 

I’m surrounded by wind farms that are still producing energy. I live next to an oil and gas equipment supplier that powers half the world. My country has the largest proven oil and gas reserves. We have the infrastructure to mine it, process it and use it. We can even sell it. We produce solar panels in this country, we even have a climate that will provide most houses the ability to self power with enough panels. 

So I remain baffled and annoyed – that apparently the energy is here, as an asset of the state, and yet I am bailing out ten layers of companies. Who apparently would all fail without me, and you. 

Why is energy not provided direct to the citizens of Scotland with the least amount of layers possible? 

We do it with water and it’s pretty cheap, it works well, the billing is simple and in general everyone is happy. Let the companies sell the excess. 

Our energy mix ensures that our wind, solar, hydro all is prioritised for local usage, it can’t really be exported anywhere yet. It’s always cheap because it can’t really be turned off and it wasn’t effected in price by war or pandemic. Instead it’s being bumped up in price artificially because the energy producers failed to have enough product – while making bumper profits anyway – with no incentive to fix this particular problem. 

Following the energy producers making more than ever before, the money had to come from literally everywhere else. This triggered a global financial madness which somehow became rapid inflation. 

In the end, my house, which hasn’t changed at all, now has to cost more per month to buy. Simply because these massive global companies can’t handle themselves. So I get to double/triple/quadruple my out goings to ensure these massive corporations who won’t ever help me, should I suffer a great financial situation – survive. 

It would be easy to be annoyed at them, however they’re very publicly and blatantly opportunistic at every moment, and the politicians hope you are distracted, rather than blaming politicians. 

Our annoyance and our demands must be aimed at politicians though as they can end it tomorrow. They can nationalise these failed industries, they can seize ill deserved profits, they can take back the resources and assets. They could do it tomorrow. They won’t though because they’re happier to join you in being annoyed at companies. 

Our society needs to consider though, how did this happen? What happened to those who are supposed to stand up for us? The government and the opposition – where are they? Or better yet – where are the policies that should ensure only our prosperity? 

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Festival of Activism: On a mission without permission

What is activism? 

the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.

Definition of Permission

the action of officially allowing someone to do a particular thing; consent or authorization.

If activism means working to bring about change in the established way of doing (or not doing) things then asking for consent or permission from those in power (the establishment) seems counterintuitive.

There is of course a broad spectrum of activism techniques to agitate for change, from collective demonstration of opinion to civil disobedience but at the heart of any activism is a passion to work to enable a desired change to outcomes.

At last weekend’s Doune The Rabbit Hole music festival, the Common Weal team had the pleasure of facilitating an array of passionate speakers on a diverse range of fascinating topics at the Douniversity stage.

Obi getting ready to get active at Douniversity and be heard 😜

Each speaker brought a unique perspective to their talk but all shared a common thread: a motivation for positive action that was mot stopped by a permission barrier to begin their mission for change.

A weekend immersed with people sharing their stories, passion and proactive attitudes, against a backdrop of a truly chilled, family music festival alongside our brilliant Common Weal team and volunteers was a real life enforcing experience.

It was a real jolt of energy to witness what is possible when you find your tribe and your groove, to bring clarity to focussing on your common goal.

It suddenly seems obvious stop seeking permission to start and just get on, do stuff and demonstrate value!

Each of the speakers, over three days of TEDX style talks, educated, entertained and informed their audiences. There were great conversations over churros & coffee (from our neighbouring stall) and lots of laughs at the Common Weal stall, set against ever present background tunes from every genre on the music stages, catering to every taste, as the festive vibe wafted across the grassy fields of West Stirlingshire. 

Now obviously we, as citizens, have a responsibility to seek permission from authority to do certain things to keep ourselves and others safe, healthy, society functioning etc., but those in authority do have a responsibility too. 

Authority must support societal needs and adapt to change where it is required or desired. There’s a balance of course of rights and protections but if a case is well made as to the benefits of a proposed change then there is an obligation of authority to engage, understand and objectively assess any proposed change where a strong thoughtful case is made. 

I was blown away by the speakers I listened to at Douniversity, for the degree of work and effort behind their passionate communication to the audiences on their ideas, actions and organisations. They were all enthusiastic to ‘sell’ their vision to a tent full of strangers as they had deep knowledge and passion of their talk’s topic.

The common thread amongst them all was that they had not been dissuaded by barriers of ‘permission’ to begin , they had found ways to progress with their focus firmly on their goal to ensure delivery of the outcomes they seek. 

Whether for healthier, safer buildings, homes and communities, sustainable growth and wellbeing, just treatment and fair rent for tenants or fundamental changes to how our society values and achieves wellbeing and happiness beyond consumerism, each had a passion that melted away the permission barriers! 

The power of demonstrating a vision takes words from a page and shows even the most cynical what can be done. Once you clear the first hurdle of disbelief you unlock a confidence that can be nurtured and built upon. It brings the exhilaration of possibilities from a self confidence that we really are only limited by our own imagination, vision and ambition: that’s true empowerment! 

My own wee talk on the Friday evening was about Active Communities. That’s my area of passion because I see the power in networks and collective action. When folk who share a passion for change can pull their knowledge, experience and vision to achieve something they can feel proud to be a part of, it changes them and lifts their heads, their confidence and their ambition.

Monster Radish Club – Community Growing Garden

The sharing of failures and successes reinforces the learning journey is every bit as important as the destination you seek to reach your goal. The camaraderie of your community network supports you on low days as you support others on theirs.

Friendships emerge from the most unlikely or corners and that’s joyous when you ‘find your tribe’!

Scotland is not just a stunningly beautiful, resources rich land mass, it is a network of communities, whether geographic, academic, sport, recreational, religious, political or other shared interests.

My political passion is for Scotland’s people across every community in our land, to have the self confidence in ourself that others across the globe have in us.

Once this collective confidence reaches a tipping point, where feudal permission seeking melts away, then independence is inevitable.

As, Victor Hugo said, “All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”

Politicians in London, Edinburgh and everywhere in between must then get onboard with the real change that is happening BY the people across these islands. Politicians serve at the pleasure of their electorate so must deliver what the people demand, if they are to command respect and succeed in being (re)elected. 

Scotland is indeed a globally renowned picturesque land but her true essence of wonder is in our people. Each person has something to contribute as an individual but that contribution becomes powerful when harnessed in our communities.

These communities all bring value to our collective as a nation. If we can draw that confidence of achievement together with an ambitious vision of what a new Scotland could be then the sky is the limit!

A nation of confident, active communities inspired to unlock the potential of self determination, when all decisions are made IN Scotland, FOR Scotland, BY Scotland then who would bet against us!

My advice, to become a valued part of creating an ambitious, inspiring new Scotland is to first throw off the ingrained feudal mindset. When we no long seek permission from our ’heros’ and ‘betters’ to instruct us to do stuff for them and instead, act and work WITH not FOR others. we empower ourselves and create our communities!

So,

  • Find your tribe
  • Get active (in whatever way you can)
  • Build self confidence and collective confidence 
  • Believe YOU can and believe WE can 

Allow your beliefs to shape your thoughts and create a vision of what’s possible.

Let your thoughts form your words to communicate with others and lead to positive actions you can take to demonstrate your vision.

Commit to these positive actions to build good habits to expand the impact of your actions and you’ve established your values that you can  connect with to build a community of common purpose.

Then YOU will have set your destiny!

Our collective destiny is Scotland’s future and that make it all of our responsibility!

The very first step to self determination is for us to decide we can and we should make our own decisions. Seems logical right? So what are we waiting for Scotland, let’s get connected!

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What society needs from Politicians

If we want our society to succeed, for all of us, we need politicians to succeed in delivering for us. This cannot be measured on career longevity or party standing but on real achievements for country and constituents.

We need to encourage more political minds of a calibre that can critically analyse information, really listen to understand problems and assess potential outcomes  before making decisions. Being a ‘team player’ seems laudable on the surface but not at the detriment of individual thinking. This is particularly important if the end goal is an independent Scotland and all the creativity and problem solving it will take to ensure a country that can thrive for all! 

Without fearless politicians, speaking up against populist tides through the generations how would fundamental societal progress have been achieved, such as the abolition of slavery?

This time of crisis for so many, is not the time for us to prioritise ‘a career in politics’ of compliant ‘team players’, this is the time to seek out and support the brave politicians of principle who will ask the difficult but necessary questions!

If we are to build consensus to achieve the safest, most robust solutions for inclusive, stable, peaceful transition to an independent nation we must ensure the freedom for our elected representatives to question on our behalf, even their own party direction, without sanction.

Gatekeepers of Quality 

Political parties are the gatekeepers to vet candidates to ensure they provide us with a choice of high calibre individuals to vote to represent us. They must take seriously the responsibility for the output their internal  process produces.

We, as the electorate can measure political parties on whether they will deliver on their manifestos and promises at the next election, but this is broad brush as much depends on the alternatives.

Least worst is no longer good enough, if it ever were. Success at elections depends both on your performance (or promises) and that of your opposition. It’s time we had a finer lens to measure and scrutinise, at least annually, how our elected representatives are performing for us.

Removing Barriers to Representative Politics 

It might even make winners less daunted at what they need to do to succeed and help losers know better what voters expectations are for next time. We must put focus on encouraging people from across society to come forward as potential candidates and break through the politico bubble that’s is currently a barrier to those ‘not in the know’.

Surely we can all agree that if we aspire to truly representative government at all levels, then removing such barriers to entry creates ideal conditions. In a Scotland seeking to demonstrate that our desire for independence is on the grounds of civic betterment for us all, this is critical.

If those in power push back and question why must they be transparent and accountable: the electorate should really be asking them “why?”